At the VHA West Coast Leadership Conference in Berkeley in November 2007, four out of 106 member hospitals in six western states were recognized for superior patient satisfaction—and three of those four were Cottage hospitals. And only one hospital in the West Coast received the highest award for patient satisfaction— Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital.

VHA is a national healthcare alliance of more than 1,400 hospitals, and its West Coast region includes a total of 106 hospitals in six states. California has 80 hospitals that are members of VHA. The VHA West Coast Performance Awards program recognizes hospitals for performance improvement activities in several categories.

Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital won “top performer” award in patient satisfaction for scores that placed it in the top one percent among other peer hospitals by achieving the 99th percentile for inpatients and 94th percentile ranking for the Emergency Department in 2007.